Yakuza series

[Let's Get Sweaty]

Or let them feel like they made the right decision by giving the game a chance at last.

No need to create the impression that Shenmue fans are bitter assholes who should never have been given what they wanted because it's only made 'em insufferable.

[shredingskin]

No need to create the impression that Shenmue fans are bitter assholes who should never have been given what they wanted because it's only made 'em insufferable.

Why lie though ?

[south carmain]

No need to create the impression that Shenmue fans are bitter assholes who should never have been given what they wanted because it's only made 'em insufferable.

Why lie though ?

[Peter]

What a game.

Sat up all night and finished Chapter 1. Sitting like a zombie in work, thinking about nothing but going home and putting another 8 hours in. This is a game I will be addicted to until I get 100%

Also have to say it helps if you have been to Tokyo and experienced these places, particularly Shinjuku. Restaurants crammed into every floor of a building. Steps leading down to dark underworlds where you can't help feel intrigued to try and explore with fear and excitement. The loud music pumping out from Arcades and Pachinko Halls on every Street corner. The bright colours and white lights of a 24 hour convenience store. Japanese reps trying to talk to you, and get you to come in to their establishment. Drunk men with briefcases staggering about the place and checking into a capsule hotel. Just all the weird stuff in general. It's a wonder to behold, and if I thought I missed Japan everyday since I got back last year, this game just makes me curl up into a ball and cry. I need to get back there.

[Testament]

What a game.

Sat up all night and finished Chapter 1. Sitting like a zombie in work, thinking about nothing but going home and putting another 8 hours in. This is a game I will be addicted to until I get 100%

Also have to say it helps if you have been to Tokyo and experienced these places, particularly Shinjuku. Restaurants crammed into every floor of a building. Steps leading down to dark underworlds where you can't help feel intrigued to try and explore with fear and excitement. The loud music pumping out from Arcades and Pachinko Halls on every Street corner. The bright colours and white lights of a 24 hour convenience store. Japanese reps trying to talk to you, and get you to come in to their establishment. Drunk men with briefcases staggering about the place and checking into a capsule hotel. Just all the weird stuff in general. It's a wonder to behold, and if I thought I missed Japan everyday since I got back last year, this game just makes me curl up into a ball and cry. I need to get back there.

I feel the exact same way. Last time I was in Japan was 2013, but I've been far too busy to make it back. But yeah-- I loved exploring Tokyo, so Yakuza is a treat for me. I even bought Akibastrip (which has weeaboo content set to 11) simply because I really enjoy Akihabara and exploring a virtual, near-1:1 recreation of it is awesome. Same deal with Yakuza and Kamurocho/Kabukicho.

I'm absolutely loving this one. I've been with the series since the first game and you can definitely see a decline in "focus" as the series goes on. I'm really happy to see it return as a crime thriller, not a soap opera with idol dancing and unnecessary story cutaways.

[drunkensailor]

[color="orange"]Part of me kind of hates the attention though; I've seen videos now of reviewers and gaming press folks lavishing it with praise and having dorky fun with karaoke and whatnot, laughing and having a good time... when, I swear to god, these are the same kinds of people who turned their noses up at that kind of stuff in earlier games. The same kinds of people who scoffed at earlier games for having "stiff animations," groaned because the side-stories aren't fully-voiced, or who flipped the first two games the bird just because of fixed camera angles during exploration. The same kinds of people who always point the finger and criticize series like this for being yearly, for only making incremental changes from game to game.
Now all these people are saying "Great game, we should all play it!" when I already know and fully expect it to basically be more of the same. With some incremental changes.
Not that it'll diminish my enjoyment of it, it's just irritating to see such a vast amount of hypocrites in the gaming/online press.[/color]

I feel similarly. I've been there since Yakuza 1 and all this hype for 0 makes me happy for the series but at the same time, I'm really bitter. If any of you posted on Neogaf when the first game came out, you'd know that I made the OT for both the first and second games there and hyped them as much as I could. Yakuza 1 bombed spectacularly and we had to wait years for Yakuza 2 because the first game bombed. And now all of these people who turned their noses at the series this entire time are interested? I dunno. I know I should be really happy for the series, and I really am, but I can't help but feel bitter about it.

I mean, look at this shit.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=117662

Gamespot gave it a 7.4

I really tried to do my part and help the series. My posts were deleted but you can see the quoted posts. Love the shout out Irish Ninja gave me in the Yakuza 0 OT.

This will be my first Kazuma Kiryu Simulator since 4. Looking forward to it.

you're always so full of neogaf. seriously nobody cares anywhere what a bunch of no life no job shitty nerds have to say about anything. neogaf is about as relevant as the black plague is now

[drunkensailor]

Sadly the bast ammount of girls that go to male-host bars are hostesses, furthering the control that the patriarchy has, not only economic:



but mental (from fanservice anime, censoring porn to blind women of their own sexuality, to almost nude ads of women in the subway for man to enjoy).

I would say "educate yourself" but it's obvious that someone who has been embeeded so much in this sexist culture won't recognise misoginy if it his them in the face.

It's important to recognize other cultures, but not the bad aspects of those. It's not censoring, it's localization.
And let's not talk about the overreprresentation of japan in videogames. Where are the african and islamic representation in videogames ? By not speaking up we're basically murdering their culture (or worse, let white people whitewash it).

It's no wonder how a nazi like trump got elected (since Japan is one of the most closed countries in terms of immigration and race).

I'm all about free speech, but not let's mix things, one thing is free speech and another one is a sexist videogame, that little kids play and get influenced by them. If we don't stop this now we'll have another columbine massacre (but more sexist), since the guys where obviously influenced by doom, being this probably the most important factor at play.

I'm not one to throw words like nazi, or racist easily, but people that don't speak up against this, are worse than nazis.

I hope you people are happy with normalizing this type of behavior and making the world a less safe place for women all around the world. Your dollars are LITERALLY stained with blood.

you are trolling right? because if not you are more full of shit than adolf hitler was in his bunker in the spring of 45

[Peter]

What a game.

Sat up all night and finished Chapter 1. Sitting like a zombie in work, thinking about nothing but going home and putting another 8 hours in. This is a game I will be addicted to until I get 100%

Also have to say it helps if you have been to Tokyo and experienced these places, particularly Shinjuku. Restaurants crammed into every floor of a building. Steps leading down to dark underworlds where you can't help feel intrigued to try and explore with fear and excitement. The loud music pumping out from Arcades and Pachinko Halls on every Street corner. The bright colours and white lights of a 24 hour convenience store. Japanese reps trying to talk to you, and get you to come in to their establishment. Drunk men with briefcases staggering about the place and checking into a capsule hotel. Just all the weird stuff in general. It's a wonder to behold, and if I thought I missed Japan everyday since I got back last year, this game just makes me curl up into a ball and cry. I need to get back there.

I feel the exact same way. Last time I was in Japan was 2013, but I've been far too busy to make it back. But yeah-- I loved exploring Tokyo, so Yakuza is a treat for me. I even bought Akibastrip (which has weeaboo content set to 11) simply because I really enjoy Akihabara and exploring a virtual, near-1:1 recreation of it is awesome. Same deal with Yakuza and Kamurocho/Kabukicho.

I'm absolutely loving this one. I've been with the series since the first game and you can definitely see a decline in "focus" as the series goes on. I'm really happy to see it return as a crime thriller, not a soap opera with idol dancing and unnecessary story cutaways.

That's my hope for the future.

But one gripe I have, is invisible walls. It's not exactly "open world" and that leads me to my biggest hope. I'd love this to be a completely Sleeping Dogs/GTA open world Yakuza game set in all the prefectures of central Tokyo. Recreating them with the level of detail they have put into Zero. That would be my wet dream. To take the subway from Central, around Ikebukuro, Shinjuku, Shibuya, Shinagawa, Gotanda.... even just have that one subway replicating the Yamanote line.
But yes, cars also, and make every building accessible. Like Shenmue did. Have these multi floors accessible, even if they are not relevant to the story, and like the rooms in Kowloon in Shenmue 2, not have anything to do with anything at all. I know that may be "too much" to ask.... but is it? Games are getting bigger and better so why should there be a glass ceiling. Compare GTA 3 to GTA 5. Why could all buildings in Yakuza 7 or 8 not be completely accessible? For me that's the intimate game. The ultimate escapism in a place that exists on this globe, recreated in game form, for me to truly take part in a narrative.

If there's one thing Yakuza 0, The Witcher 3, Last Guardian and the hope of how good Shenmue 3 will be, is that there is hope for a great future with games that can generate positive emotions such as hope, excitement, intrigue and even sadness. That's the power of this medium which can only get better.

[Hyo Razuki]

I love the Shenmue quote in the picture. Game You!

^ Yeah, that cold is crazy. Just out of curiosity - why didn't you order the UK version? Don't deliveries take much longer from the US, unless you pay a lot for express deliveries or whatever?

And I guess you could have gone with the German version, too. They're much more lenient with the gore stuff these days overhere, games only rarely get censored (or even banned). The last two cases I can think of (that actually affected me and made me order UK versions) are Sleeping Dogs and Dead Space 2. If Yakuza was censored you'd probably have read that somewhere, news outlets usually post this kind of info.

Austrian or UK versions used to be my way to go in the old days, when I didn't have a modded PS2. Thanks for letting me know, they're more lenient nowadays. I wasn't aware of that. I guess I can stick to German versions more often then. Import gaming is so expensive after all, with shipping, customs and tax.

About the US version. That's a kind of childish thing I do. You might not even be aware of it but Sega of Europe announced they'll be stopping to distribute physical games. Deep Silver (a Koch Media BU) will handle the publishing in all of Europe from now on. I've been a Sega fanboy since I was 4 or 5 and you can't get the Sega fanboy out of me.

But Sega do still publish in the Americas and you know how on the back of a PS4 game it always says "Published by Sega. Developed by Sega."? I want it to say that and nothing else than that. Or even worse, the European version might even have a Deep Silver logo on the front. Now, I've got nothing against Deep Silver, it's just I don't want any other publisher for a Sega game. I will already suck it up and buy the Deep Silver-published European physical version of Valkyria Revolution for financial reasons but then again I've been a Yakuza fanboy since day one but I'm not really a Valkyria fan, so while I might accept a different publisher for Valkyria, it is out of question for Yakuza games.

And yes, I know that's kind of a weird reason to pay about 130% of the regular price for a game but the rational part of my brain stopped trying to reason with my inner Sega fan. It knows it can't win.

[Henry Spencer]

Having booted the game up today (no patches, woohoo, just like Gravity Rush 2! Straight into the game) and beaten Chapter 1, I have to say that I think this might have been the best opening chapter in the Yakuza series yet. If it keeps up this current pace then this is some Yakuza 2 quality shit right here (as in, top stuff, my lad). Oh man.

Feeling damn engrossed into the game already. I did get a nostalgia rush seeing

Nishiki and Kazama/Fuma

again.

[Axm]

I'm really tempted to give this game a shot as I always do with this series. I'll just have to do it later on when I finish some other games and this becomes cheaper. Overall seems like they packed alot into this one from a value perspective.

[Peter]

Dude!!! Remember when we met for Krispy Kremes and then walked up thay street in Shinjuku with the cinema at the bottom with Godzilla on top of it? At the top we went into Don Quiote? That street is in there, with a Don Quiote exactly where its supposed to be in game!

[OL]

Having booted the game up today (no patches, woohoo, just like Gravity Rush 2! Straight into the game) and beaten Chapter 1, I have to say that I think this might have been the best opening chapter in the Yakuza series yet.

I couldn't help but to try it out just a little while ago myself, and man, even just the first few minutes is one of the best openings in the series. From the first cutscene, all the way to meeting Nishiki, it's all aces.
I like that they've corrected something in the translation too; the whole Kazama/Fuma thing. Sure, it was kind of a nice gesture how they kept trying to keep things consistent before, continuing on with the name "Fuma" since that's how the original localization decided to change things (since we're all too dumb to separate "Kazama" from "Kazuma" I'd guess) but it just wasn't correct was it? Nice to see them calling him the same thing in the subs as what the characters are actually saying now.

Also, seeing the opening credits... holy shit, how did it pass me by that Tetsuya Watari, the freakin' Tokyo Drifter himself, is in this game?
People make a big deal about how Takeshi Kitano is gonna be in Yakuza 6, but to me personally, I think it's an even bigger deal that Tetsuya Watari and Riki Takeuchi -- a friggin' double shot of legendary yakuza actors -- are both in this.
Reminds me, I still need to go finish watching the Outlaw: Gangster VIP series sometime soon. Lotsa stabbing and manly tears.

[Axm]

Dude!!! Remember when we met for Krispy Kremes and then walked up thay street in Shinjuku with the cinema at the bottom with Godzilla on top of it? At the top we went into Don Quiote? That street is in there, with a Don Quiote exactly where its supposed to be in game!

Ya What a trip. They sure capture it all down real well. Actually just played some of Yakuza 6 at a demo station in a game store a second ago and in that one its even more present day than ever. Shinjuku is just one of those super memorable places that even though I sometimes hate it cause of shit capsule hotels and night club harassers its still like you always wanna go back again because it's on another level with what we are used to in our countries. The only other place in Japan that touches the flashy but grimey feel is Osaka Namba Dotonbori area which is also in Yakuza games too ya know?

Always thought it would be cool if they had some of my city Fukuoka in there one day too. We have some flashy grimey night life spots here too. Just on a much smaller level.

[OL]

^^I think they had some of Fukuoka in Yakuza 5 actually, though I'm sure it's only a representation of a tiny little part (probably not the scale you'd be hoping for). I think it was the opening area, actually, where Kazuma is working as a cab driver.